#Bitcoin, crypto, and blockchain will likely go down as the biggest example of popular delusions and the madness of crowds in world history. The overall losses when the bubble finally pops will be staggering. It’s not just the speculators who will be left holding a bag of worthless Bitcoin, but also the investors who funded all the infrastructure and related businesses. This is likely the biggest misallocation of resources in human history. Not only will the net losses to society be staggering, but Bitcoin itself will do more to tarnish the reputation of libertarian capitalism and the concept of sound money than any failed government program ever has.
I am in tentative agreement about bitcoin being the biggest popular delusion in world history. The possible exception to this is faith in communism. And the tremendous amount of electricity consumed just boggles my mind.
But the bubble will last as long as enough people have faith in it. It is conceivable that will be decades or even a century.*
But the [dollar | bitcoin] will last as long as enough people have faith in it. It is conceivable that will be decades or even a century.
* Edited as per a suggestion via email from Mike H. on November 13, 2024.
WHAT THIS MEANS: No matter which state you’re in, if you’ve got your concealed carry license, each state will still have to honor it – for example, you have a Florida concealed carry permit – California would have to… pic.twitter.com/GwFYgwOmfx
— Frank Fighting For Freedom 🇺🇸 (@thinktankfranks) November 10, 2024
But words are cheap. It will take a lot to get it through the legislative process. The problem is that if it becomes law then the politicians just lost something to promise during the next election cycle.
This is devastating. The gun safety movement has faced countless setbacks but when it comes to the number one killer of kids, nothing will stand in our way. Make no mistake: Trump’s extremist agenda is a danger for our nation, but it means we’ll double down on our efforts to protect our communities and continue to make progress, just like we did in 2016. The momentum of the gun safety movement can’t be stopped. Gun violence isn’t a left or right issue, it’s a life-or-death issue. We can and will overcome this—together.
Above all I would advise people against posting expressions and videos of their personal anguish over the election, there is a substantial number of people here who use this as masturbation material.
Sure, this is rather funny. I doubt there is much truth to it though. Yeah, there are some really strange kinks out there. But I doubt there are “a substantial number of people” which find this sexually arousing.
I think the more likely situation is that Burge finds it humorous to increase the anguish.
Although, there is one person who replied to his post with “I’m literally out of lube and shooting dust”. But I think he is joking too.
Republicans are the party of emotional, knee-jerk responses. They don’t care about facts, truth, or their fellow Americans. They are emotional children and incapable of empathy.
Just a FYI. This may help you understand how her mind works. I don’t know for certain, but this is the only way I can make sense of it. The original definition of a fascist was:
Fascism The principles or methods of the Fascisti—Fascist, I. A member of the Fascisti. II. Of or pertaining to the Fascisti.
Fascisti … The members of a patriotic society in Italy, animated by a strong national spirit, and organized in connection with a repressive movement directed against the socialists and communists and the disturbances excited by them during 1919 and the years following, which regarded the government as criminally negligent in failing to deal with these disturbances, and took measure on its own account, often violent ones, to combat them, and which developed into a powerful party obtaining political control of the country in Oct., 1922, under its founder and leader, Benito Mussolini, as prime minister; hence, the members of a similar society or party elsewhere.
If you want to loosen up the definition a little you would conclude the following. If you are opposed to socialism and/or communism you are a fascist. Nazis Germany was opposed to Soviet socialism (worldwide socialism, versus national socialism). Both sides were competing for, essentially, the same mind share. Nazis were allied with Italy and shared the common political alignment with fascism.
Hence, her twisted mind can conclude that since you are opposed to socialism/communism you are a fascist Nazi.
Who would have guessed lying about Biden’s cognitive health for 2 yrs, refusing to do an open convention for a new nominee, never mentioning public healthcare & embracing fracking, the Cheneys & a yr long slaughter of children in Gaza wouldn’t be a winning strategy?
Anyone with half a brain? But I thought liberals’ whole thing is being smart? It’s not? They actually just blindly cheer the parade of rickety optics wrapped up in New York Times fonts that is the modern Dem Party?
Well at least it’s time for the dusty hacks & careerists to spread their feathers wide post election and blame Russia and third party candidates. That should fix things.
This was a large donor to the Democrat party. I find this guy most interesting. His take on things, at best half right, at least puts the blame on Harris and the Democrat party.
I find it very telling that all the other whining I see on the web about Harris’s loss is based on introspection. It does not include asking republicans why they voted the way they did. And, one would think, they should especially be asking people who usually vote for democrats why they voted for Trump in this election.
I see, again and again, insistence the voters are sexist, racist, white nationalist, and/or fascist. Nevermind that black men, and all Latinos voted for Trump in greater numbers than in 2020. And in some counties a larger fraction of blacks voted Republican this year than they have since the 1870s! Nevermind these evil voters wouldn’t be pushing lawsuits through the courts that make it easier for individuals own guns and training them on how to defend themselves from the likes of the KKK, men who women, and a fascist government.
Their mindset is it always someone else’s fault. The problem is not they are trying to sell an inferior product. The problem is the people are too stupid and/or evil to buy it. In an individual, this sort of reasoning is a strong indicator of mental illness. It can be argued it means the same thing in a group.
While it’s not always possible to evade government mandates, registering your guns just puts them on a shopping list for sticky-fingered officials. That’s true of registering anything that you value and that powerful people might fear or covet.
Even more concerning, though, is the prospect of governments in supposedly free societies conducting intelligence operations against their people and punishing those who hold disapproved ideas. That’s a great argument for getting rid of the need for government permission to go about our lives. Politicians will never approve of those who disagree with them, but we shouldn’t need their approval.
Way back when I started getting into guns, I thought everyone was in agreement that free speech was a good thing. While considered extremely bad form, it was legal for Nazis to have a peaceful march through Jewish neighborhoods. As near as I can recall, 30 years ago there wasn’t any real consequences to not believing the 16th Amendment was properly ratified, or that the moon landings were faked.
That is not the case anymore. New York passed a law (recently thrown out by the courts) requiring people to hand over your social media accounts to the government before you can get a concealed carry license. People have lost their jobs at Facebook for donating a couple thousand dollars to President Trump’s campaign. Others have lost their jobs for saying men, in general, were better at certain things and women were better at other things.
There currently is a deliberate chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental rights. There is some push back, as in the repeal of the New York law, but it is going to take a lot more time and resources to restore the free exercise of our rights to where they should be.
“Freedom from fear” offers freedom from everything except the government. Anyone who sounds the alarm about excessive government power will automatically be guilty of subverting freedom from fear. Presumably,the fewer inviolable rights the citizen has, the better government will treat him. But as John Locke warned more than 300 years ago, “I have no reason to suppose, that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.”
Why not simply offer voters “freedom from the Constitution”? “Freedom from fear” means security via mass delusions about the nature of political power. Painting the motto “freedom from fear” on shackles won’t make them easier to bear. Perhaps our ruling class should be honest and replace the Bill of Rights with a new motto: “Political buncombe will make you free.”
I have never even taken an economics class, but I found her book ideas interesting. Among other things it outlined a way for the U.S. and the entire world to ease into a gold standard. Since gold reached a new all-time high today.* The idea of returning to a gold standard has more than a little bit of attraction.
As the article points out she is also an advocate for a target of zero inflation. The article is more than a bit down on that idea. But if I were President Trump, I would set up a debate. The debate would be between Shelton and a couple opponents of her zero-inflation suggestion. A compromise of a target of 1% inflation would still be beneficial. It would provide useful data about the utility of zero or near zero inflation.
In other words the entire event despite its marathon length and hodgepodge of z-list speakers, delivered over and over again a very focused message. The Trump campaign is about retribution and revenge. It is about the white supremacist desire to purge America of all their neighbors of different colors and beliefs. It is about Trump’s desire to seek out his enemies and punish them. And over the course of its Wagnerian length (and resonances) it single out group after group that would be deported or punished.
From a political perspective the strategy is pure suicide. The rally will almost certainly alienate more voters who might have voted for Trump and it is hard to imagine it has earned him one single new vote. (Unless there is a Franz Liebkind somewhere who has been too busy writing “Springtime for Hitler” to have paid attention to the campaign until now.) It was a play to the base when the biggest problem Trump has in this election is breaking through his rock solid ceiling of around 47 percent of the electorate.
Eight years later, after being dragged from courthouse to courthouse, two assassination attempts and being labeled a “fascist” by his opponents daily, Trump has a real chance at another victory against long odds. The Daily Caller spoke to various experts across the political landscape about what to expect if that happens. From violence in the streets, to Democrats’ plans to contest a Trump win, to the media meltdown, to election lawfare from Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias, they all predicted a much more dangerous and extreme response this time around if the “threat to democracy” is democratically elected.
McGinniss told the Caller he is preparing for unrest across the country that will be more intense than what was seen in 2016. He says nearly a decade of persistent anti-Trump messaging will be an accelerant for extremism.
“[We’ve been] told that, effectively, our country is going to be under a dictatorship if Trump wins,” McGinniss told the Caller.
He predicted that violent activists throughout the country would target the nearest avatar of the government they could find, whether that be federal courthouses or police precincts.
Julio Rosas, a national correspondent for The Blaze who has years of experience covering riots and social unrest, had a similar prediction, adding that migrants who have been let into the country under the Biden-Harris administration may join in big cities such as New York and Chicago. Above all, Rosas said protests can be expected because violent demonstrators have never learned their lesson.
I don’t want to be in the city for the next few months. Unfortunately, my employer insists we be in the office four days a week. And, I don’t have an underground bunker in Idaho to live in. It is a lot of work to keep my small camping trailer there livable in the winter. And with two people in it, it is miserable to live in for extended periods.
In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.
Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.
Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion.
I found his opinion peace straightforward, candid, and believable. His reference to reality echos my frequent references to some people. I imagine these people must have a different color of sky in their universe.
Bezos goes on to say the people who believe the decision was in fear of Trump retaliation are mistaken:
I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here. Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was made entirely internally.
But that is not what the “journalists” and subscribers want to hear. They insist they need to be told to do what they already planned to do. And if Bezos’ newspaper is not going to do that, then they are going to stomp their feet and pout:
NPR reported Tuesday that The Post has shed more than a whopping 250,000 subscribers since it revealed its editorial board would not formally endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after it had planned to do so.
…
A veteran Washington Post insider tells Fox News Digital that Monday’s initial NPR report noting the massive drop in subscribers was “the talk of the newsroom.”
“People are outraged at such a boneheaded decision,” the insider said.
This is further evidence of the emotional basis of their belief system. Their belief system is not based on facts and rational thought. If it were, they would not require the opinion writers of a newspaper to reinforce their faith. They need a power figure to maintain that faith. That their faith leader failed to do this is heretical.
I received the following text message exchange regarding the election in Pennsylvania. One person lives in Idaho. The other is in Pennsylvania. Make what you will of it.
ID: Monday, Sep 9 · 7:25 AM I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a lobbyist here in Idaho and she’s been hanging out with DC people who say that PA is the key to the election. So who’s going to win?
ID: 7:26 AM ·SMS You’re state
PA: Monday, Sep 9 · 9:06 AM I can’t imagine Harris winning Pennsylvania but they sure ha e been hanging out here a lot Latest poll shows Harris up +0.2 which means it’s even. The Dems will pull out all stops and cheat their way to victory. The repubs have to cheat also to overcome the Dems cheating
ID: Monday, Sep 9 · 2:22 PM Mail in ballots are a gift if you want to cheat
PA: Monday, Sep 9 · 5:08 PM The Repubs totally screwed up allowing those things I worked the 2020 election and every morning the election commission staff would come to work with fists filled with ballots. Old ladies in the neighborhood they would say. Fair enough except it was illegal Multiply that by how many precincts? We’re fucked.
ID: Yea
PA: Repubs have to cheat even then the Democrats will out cheat them by a lot in the big cities.
So the idea here is that the dominance in the Academy of skeptical and irrationalist epistemologies provides the academic Left with a new strategy. Confronted by ruthless logic, harsh evidence, they have a solution: “That’s only logic and evidence. Logic and evidence are subjective. You can’t really PROVE anything. FEELINGS are deeper than logic, and my feelings say Socialism.”
That’s my second hypothesis about the origins of Postmodernism. I call it the Kierkegaardian hypothesis, that Postmodernism is the crisis of faith of the academic Left. Its epistemology justifies taking a personal leap of faith in continuing to believe your Socialist ideals.
Communism is no longer an economic theory. It has failed utterly at that. It’s now a religion. And it’s proselytized in our education systems.
Unfortunately, I am of the opinion this change does little, if anything, to make it less destructive. Politics have been an emotional team sport for a long time. Team communism will lose a few supporters, but they will pick up others. And those they pick up will be the type of people who thrive on strong emotions. Seeing those that opposed them piled up in a ditch will only give them a thrill and the wish to see more dead non-believers.
Burlington Vermont, population about 45,000, decided to “defund the police” and went from 105 police officers to 74. Then, when they realized it was a mistake, upped the approved staffing level to 87. The result:
According to Fox, “violent crime is up significantly in Burlington, with crime data showing that aggravated assault has increased 40 percent and gunfire has gone up nearly 300 percent. Some local residents told Fox they find it ‘dangerous’ to be out in public at night.”
…
In a letter posted to its Facebook page on Wednesday, the Burlington Police Officers Association — the union that represents the city’s officers — charged city leaders with failing to support its officers, which the union said was reflected in the fact that Vermont Police Academy cadets showed no interest in working in the city.
They now have 68 police officers.
It isn’t going to get better anytime soon:
If Burlington residents are truly making the connection between leftist policies and the results that follow, it isn’t showing up in the election results. In the March election that returned Traverse to office, VTDigger reported, the city elected a candidate from the Progressive Party as mayor and gave Progressives a fifth seat on the 12-member city council.
Democrats hold six seats and an independent holds one.
So a city that was run by a Democratic mayor and council in 2020 is now run by a Progressive mayor and Democratic/Progressive council.
My initial thought was they had decided to try appearing to be more factual rather than cheerleaders for their preferred political party. Perhaps it would be better for business, right?
But other people have a much different interpretation the decision. From the article linked to above:
… a desire to avoid angering Donald Trump, and/or a move to avoid angering readers.
I never saw that coming. After calling him a threat to democracy, a felon, a rapist, and literally Hitler they are now concerned endorsing Harris will make Trump and/or his supporters angry. Really?
That sounds like the rational of a paranoid person. They have the mindset that Trump is incredibly evil and will use any power he acquires to exact a business and/or life-threatening revenge. And anyone that appears to give Trump the slightest of concessions must be doing it out of fear.
But shouldn’t the failure to endorse Harris result in a concern about invoking her wrath?
What I find most interesting is that my immediate thought of why they did that apparently did not occur to anyone writing in the legacy news media. I am not a normal person.
With both political parties over the last few decades, there has developed a more ‘team sport’ mentality of voters within their respective parties supporting the candidate of their side regardless of how the economy is treating them and their families.
Alex Beene A financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin October 22, 2024
It has been decades since I went to a public sporting event. The rate of my watching professional ball games on T.V. is probably right at one every 10 years. I can feel the emotional pull, but I find the level of emotional involvement by the audiences frightening. This is what people are like when their mask drops just a little bit. Given just a little different circumstances and these same people would cheer on “their” gladiator team as they fought another team to the death. Or lined up all the capitalists next to a ditch to be shot.
That type of emotion served a useful purpose over the millennia. But like fire it is a troublesome servant and a fearful master*. Our political parties have leveraged it to great effect, and I think it has essentially taken over. Look at the political rallies with thousands of yelling people. Look at both sides totally convinced the other side is evil. Both sides may be more right than wrong in their description of the other.
I look at the political landscape and see overwhelming evidence supporting my need for an underground bunker in remote Idaho.
* George Washington didn’t really say anything like this. See:
We are constantly reminded that we are experiencing a climate crisis, but as a climate scientist, I can tell you that’s not what the science has shown us so far. Other than modest warming, there has been little change in any kind of severe weather that can be attributed to global greenhouse gas emissions.
You don’t have to take my word for it, despite my credentials. It’s the conclusion of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its most recent report concludes that, other than direct temperature-related effects, there have been virtually no changes in severe weather that we can confidently attribute to greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
And they do not anticipate that conclusion to change much, even by the end of this century.
I suspect Spencer is correct, but I’m not going to commit on this as it is not my area of expertise. There is just too much emotion and money involved on the side of “global cooling!”, “global warming!”, “climate change!” for me to be anything but suspicious of them.
And besides, as hinted at in the article, increasing temperatures and rising sea levels are much better for everyone than entering another ice age. Which is easier to deal with? The sea rising a few feet and Canada getting a longer growing season for their crops? Or the corn belt hosting reindeer grazing the new tundra with glaciers a mile deep covering everything north from Seattle and New York City?
